The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the foundation of our Christian faith. If surveys are correct, Christians spend little time in the Scriptures, let alone delighting in them, yet they are our foundation and “rule faith and life”. We learn to delight in the Scriptures by letting go of needing to have all the answers, accept the mystery of the ambiguities and difficulties of Scripture and through meditation and delighting in the things in the word of God we affect of our own hearts and minds and encounter the living Jesus.

In the first chapter of Genesis, the very first book in the Bible God speaks and brings the world into existence. He places all things where he wants them. At the end of his creative work God makes us. He makes humankind, male and female. He makes us after his image. And what we read there, right at the very beginning, is that the first thing that God after making us is to bless us. “And God blessed them.” We are made for God’s blessing – it is what we each long for. It comes to us in Jesus.

After the long Emmaus road resurrection narrative where the Cleopas and his companion have burning hearts for God's Word and their eyes opened by the broken bread of Jesus, Jesus appears to the eleven disciples and he leaves them with a commission that they would take the news of Jesus from Jerusalem with the aid of the Holy Spirit, the "power from on high"! But what news of Jesus are they to take? What is the core of the message that they are to proclaim? Christ's death and his resurrection, his suffering and his glory! And because of that suffering on the cross and because of that glorious resurrection the door is open for repentance and the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus sums up what they are to say he sums it up with suffering and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and it is to be proclaimed to all people!

It is very easy to get lost in the theological ramifications of Jesus’ death and miss the perspective of those who witnessed his crucifixion in all of its gory spectacle. As they walked home from Jerusalem, after Jesus’ death, Cleopas and Mary were most likely emotionally overwhelmed. Despair was their companion when they meet one whom they did not at first recognize. In describing Himself in the scriptures He would enter their despair, and showing them what a “body broken” means.

Jesus has risen. Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James have encountered the empty tomb and an angel. Peter races to the tomb and finds only empty strips of cloth. What is going on here? The obvious answer has yet to manifest himself. Next in his account, Luke tells us the experience of Cleopas and his wife Mary as they walk back to Emmaus reflecting on the tragic events in Jerusalem, where they encounter a mysterious traveler....

Henry David Thoreau said "The price of anything is the amount of life you are willing to exchange for it". That's an amazingly insight for budgeting and for how we spend out resources, whether that be our money or our time or our intellect or anything else that we have. It is also an amazing insight into the gospel of Jesus. New life broke forth into the world that first Easter morning and we are told in Holy Scripture that just as Jesus rose from the dead, so also death itself doesn't have the final say for those who are in Jesus. But at what cost? What was the price of Christian hope? What did it cost to bring life where death was the order of the world? The price for that was the very paschal passion of God's Son, our Lord Jesus himself. That is the cost of our hope and Jesus paid it all!

The last words in Jesus' ears were not "Crucify him!" but rather "save yourself." He had entered Jerusalem to cries of "Hosanna!" which means "Save us!", Jesus stays on the cross not to save himself, but to save us. He doesn't save himself, but rather he saves the guilty, he saves us. This is the good news. And this good news is received as we, like the thief on the cross, know that we have nothing to bring to Jesus and all we can do is receive him. "Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom", is answered with "Today, you will be with me in paradise!"

lm branches swaying, cloaks being thrown on the ground and shouts of Hosanna in the air. All of these things that took place on that first Palm Sunday during our Lord's "Triumphal Entry" were asking Jessu to be a savior and a king of their liking, establishing their nation, doing away with Rome and having an Israelite back on the throne. They wanted the cosmis yes-man in their court. How similar are we today? Maybe especially in an election year, we want Jesus to back our causes. But in that short first Holy Week that same crowd's voice went from "Hosanna!" to "Crucify him"! Why? Quite simply, because he is the Savior and King that we need, but often the one that we don't really want. He is savior and king in a way that demands our total allegiance to him, rather than his allegiance to us and our wants and desires.